Cleaning Tips

Keeping your home clean all the time can be a huge hassle. Certain parts of the house seems to get much dirtier than others. When was the last time you even cleaned the behind the toilet?

Other times, it feels like your house starts getting dirty as soon as you just finished cleaning it. It’s a never ending battle. The kitchen seems just as bad as it was after a couple of days, and the bathroom gets messier and messier as the weeks pass. Dust collects on your blinds and you can’t seem to bring yourself to ever clean the stairs.

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Cleaning the house becomes a chore because everything becomes so daunting. Cut back on the stress by maintaining a clean home. Can you imagine what it’s like to have a clean home all the time?

A large part of keeping a clean home is more than just objectively keeping things clean but also how your home feels. Having a clean home feels refreshing. It lets you really feel at ease at home because there’s no nagging thought about how you should really get around to doing some cleaning.

Here’s a list of 61 tips on how to keep your home clean all the time. The list starts with general advice and themes that you’ll see repeated throughout the list for more specific areas of your house.

General

#1 Clean as you go

This something you hear all the time. It sounds like it makes a lot of sense, but unfortunately, the advice is way too vague. Throughout the list, you’ll get detailed tips on how you can actually clean as you go, whether it’s managing your living room, bathroom, kitchen, or anywhere else in the house.

#2 Spend just a little bit of time everyday

Even though this one sounds eerily similar to “clean as you go,” it’s not quite the same idea. What this means it that you should set aside a little bit of time everyday to clean. Whether it’s 5 or 15 minutes, doing a little bit everyday makes cleaning less intimidating.

#3 Work your way from top to bottom

So, as a general rule of thumb, you want to clean top to bottom. If you’re washing your walls, work top to bottom. Clean higher surfaces before lower surface while leaving floors for last. Granted, there are a few exceptions to the rule, but remember this will save you a lot of headache from when you realize you’re brushing stuff all over your newly swept floors.

#4 Handle the paper

Source: http://www.goodhousekeeping.com/

Many people just aren’t sure how to manage all the paper that comes into the house. This means stuff like mail, documents, or things that you might want to keep but you’re not quite sure yet. As a result, you start accumulating documents all over your tables and countertops. Come up with a system to take care of your paper before it becomes a problem.

#5 Create a cleaning schedule

There’s a lot of things to clean in any house. You’ve got the stuff like everything your kitchen and bathrooms. Countertops and clutter are also easy to judge when they’re getting messy. But what about the little things like your windows, banisters, the sides of your toilet, blinds, and so on? Try making a schedule for yourself to pick just a couple of items to do everyday. Also remember some things don’t have to be cleaned weekly. Every 2 weeks is just fine to maintain great cleanliness for most things.

#6 Get rid of things you don’t need

Decluttering is a huge movement going on right now. It’s surprising how many things we hold onto for reasons that aren’t quite clear to us. You shouldn’t just go and purge everything from your life, especially if some of those things contain memories. But you should regularly assess if each item you have is something you or your family are actually using or hold dear.

#7 Keep your cleaning supplies conveniently on hand

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This tip is about making the cleaning process as easy as possible for you. Many people like to have a caddy with all of their cleaning supplies in it. For some, you might want to have basic cleaning supplies all over the house. If you have a general purpose cleaning spray and towels everywhere, it’s that much easier to just pull it out and do some spot checking during the week.

#8 Have a place for everything

Organization fights clutter for you. You don’t even have to think about how to keep your house from getting messy if you have a good organization system in place. If every item has a place it belongs, then it’s less likely that it’ll just end up on a random shelf or on the floor.

#9 Keep cleaning fun and light

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Cleaning shouldn’t feel like a chore. It’s an important part of maintaining a clean and fresh home, which does wonders for your well-being. Put on some music. Have a glass of wine. Dance. Don’t just clean in complete silence like you’re in a prison camp.

#10 Use microfiber towels

Source: https://maximmart.com/

Microfiber towels are great for cleaning nearly all the surface around your home. They’re soft, absorbent, and they won’t leave streaks on your surfaces. Stay away from the cheap towels because some of them will leave lint all over the place. These towels had to be called out specifically because they’re a must-use in any home.

#11 Use the right cleaning solutions and supplies

Continuing the theme of using the right tools, make sure you’re equipped with the right cleaning solutions, brushes, gloves, or anything else you need to clean things around the house. If all you have to clean your toilet is nothing but paper towels and no gloves, then that suddenly becomes a really unpleasant task. Having the right supplies reduces the resistance to cleaning.

#12 Try using a timer

Source: https://www.walmart.com/

Cleaning can be a drag. Even when you start cleaning, you can end up spending more time than you need to. Try using a timer to clean in short bursts of energetic cleaning. See how much you can get done in just 5 minutes!

#13 Don’t try to be perfect

And lastly, don’t drive yourself crazy trying to be perfect. It takes a lot more work to have a spotless home than it does to just have a clean home. If you set your standards too high, you’re more likely to procrastinate and not try to meet them at all.

Kitchen

#14 Wipe surfaces and stovetops daily

Kitchens are where we generate some of the biggest messes throughout each week. Keep your countertops and surfaces clean daily so that you don’t have to face a ton of buildup at the end of the week.

#15 Scrub the sink regularly

Sinks accumulate a lot of grime and hard water stains over the time. If you can tackle your sinks just every 2 weeks, it won’t take more than a light scrubbing to maintain a brand new look.

#16 Keep a broom or vacuum handy

Do you hate walking around the kitchen and feeling things get stuck to your feet? By having a broom or vacuum handy, give your kitchen a quick once-over whenever that happens to you.

#17 Pick the right trash bin for you

Source: https://www.walmart.com/

Everyone has different habits when it comes to trash bins. If the trash is a hassle to take out, you might start accumulating trash around your bin when it gets full. If that’s the case, get a bigger bin to accommodate your habits. On the other hand, if you don’t accumulate a lot of trash over time, a big bin might mean you’ll have more decomposing food and smells in your kitchen. Find out what works best for you.

#18 Take care of the dishes as soon as possible

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Whether you wash your dishes by hand or use the dishwasher, put them away as soon as you can. After meals or the end of the day are both usually good times to regularly take care of the dishes.

#19 Clean as you go when you’re cooking

Be mindful of how you’re using the kitchen as you cook. Take care of anything that drops immediately. Put any dishes or bowls away when you’re done with them. The cleaner your kitchen is at the end of cooking, the less work you’ll have to do to finish up any remaining touches.

Windows

#20 Use Rain-X to keep your windows cleaner for longer

Rain-X doesn’t just work for car windows, you can use them at home, too. Once you have your windows squeaky clean, use Rain-X to help protect them from getting dirty too quickly. This is even better if you can do it on the outside.

#21 Choose one part to clean at a time

Every window has several parts to it. The glass, the windowsill, the blinds, and the tracks. Consider putting just one part of the window on a regularly cleaning schedule to maintain your window cleaning. It’s also more efficient than switching around to clean all the different parts of a window at once.

Living Room

#22 Take out misplaced objects whenever you leave the room

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If there’s anything in the living room that shouldn’t be there, take it out when you leave.

#23 Rotate your cushions regularly

This is one you might not think about too often. If your sofas have cushions that can be rotated, give them a turn once in a while. Taking care of your furniture and belongings is also a big part of keep a fresh feeling in the house.

#24 Pick at least one thing to thoroughly clean at a time

Living rooms can be big. And they can be filled with a lot of items. Don’t intimidate yourself into trying to clean everything at once. Pick just one or two things to clean in any given session. It could be a TV, a sofa, a coffee table, or all of the paper and magazines accumulating on a end table.

#25 Consider keeping a wastebasket around

Most people don’t have a wastebasket in their living room, but having a small one in a discreet spot can prevent clutter from accumulating in the first place.

#26 Put vacuuming off until the end of the week

The theme of this tip is that you should regularly set time aside to vacuum your living room, especially if it’s a highly trafficked area. It doesn’t have to be the end of the week. It can be any day that works for you. The point is, don’t obsess over vacuuming constantly unless you just had a big spill or something similar.

Bathrooms

#27 Start cleaning by moving everything aside

Make it easy on yourself. If there’s a lot of shampoos, lotions, or bottles of whatever you’re using all over the place, don’t try to lift them up as you’re cleaning. Just move them all aside and clean what you need to. After you’re done with that area, move them all back to the other side so you can clean everything else.

#28 Organize your bathroom stuff

Source: http://www.goodhousekeeping.com/

Create a space for all the different products you use. Maybe you want to organize them by type, or you could organize them by how often you use them. Having a place to put things makes it less likely that everything will just start crowding the counter

#29 Keep a squeegee in the shower

Source: https://www.walmart.com/

If you live in a house with very hard water, keep a squeegee around to use after every shower. It takes less than 20 seconds to squeegee most of the water off, and it’ll make it less painful to deep clean your shower later down the road.

#30 Wipe tricky surfaces like toilets regularly

Regularly can mean anything to you. Just pick something frequent enough that you aren’t disgusted by having to get down to clean around the back and sides of the toilet.

#31 Clean your mirrors often

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Keeping clean mirrors really helps to make a bathroom feel clean. Even though it might not actually make your bathroom any dirtier, the most visible things like water spots can affect how you feel the most.

#32 Use toilet tablets to keep your toilet fresh

Some toilets just seem to grow stuff quicker than it seems possible. Even after a good scrub, it seems to come back within a week. Using a bleach tablets to really keep your toilet fresh. If you’re having trouble with stubborn growths, the bleach tablets might be able to help flush them out for good.

Bedrooms

#33 Make your bed every morning

This tip is a lot more important than it seems. Just having a bed made in the morning doesn’t really affect the rest of the house. After all, you’re just going to get back into it in the evening. What making the bed does, however, is it sets you up to get into a productive mindset first thing in the morning. Keeping a well-maintained home starts with being mindful of all the little things like making the bed

#34 Keep a wastebasket around

You’ve seen this one before, but it’s coming up again. Bedrooms are a great place for clutter because it’s they’re our personal spaces. It’s easy to just leave things on the nightstand because we can. Having a wastebasket handy makes clutter less likely from happening.

#35 Have a system for your clothes

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Clothes are often the biggest culprit in the bedroom. After a long day, it feels great to just kick off your clothes and put them wherever you want. It’s also easy to just shove all of your underwear into a single drawer. You’ll just dig for what you need when the time comes, right? Organizing your clothes keeps you sane and happy. Don’t waste energy everyday worrying about where to put your clothes or where to find them.

#36 Put away winter clothes if possible

If you have enough space to store clothes that you aren’t using, put them away. They’ll just get in your way when you try to keep your closet organized.

#37 Take care of dirty laundry immediately

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Put your dirty clothes away immediately. If your closest laundry hamper is too far away to make this convenient, consider getting another one. Keep it close like right outside your bedroom, or you could also hang a laundry bag on your door.

#38 Same goes for any dirty dishes

Ideally, you should try to keep food out of the bedroom. But who doesn’t love getting comfortable on your bed with some comfort snacks and a good movie? Take care of any dirty dishes as soon as possible to avoid any smells and clutter.

#39 Keep a spare set of sheets, pillowcases, and duvet covers on hand

Everyone has a different opinion on how often to wash their linens. Not having an extra set of linens on hand can make it hard to wash them whenever it’s convenient for you. You have to instead set aside time where you can wash and get them dried before it’s time for bed. An extra set means you can pull off the old ones whenever you want and be ready to go for the night.

#40 Air out your bedroom regularly

Bedrooms tend to collect a lot of stale air and get musty since we stay in them the longest out of any room. Regularly get some fresh air into your room to keep it feeling fresh.

#41 Your closet should have extra space

Having a full closet makes it very hard to keep your closet organized. It becomes difficult to find a place to put your clothes. Leaving some extra space and hangers in your closet means that you’ll always be able to find a place to put something.

#42 Use a mattress protector

There’s a whole variety mattress protectors out there. They can keep your mattress protected from spills while others are made to keep out dust and allergens. This not only gets you more life out of your mattress, you’re less likely to suffer from dust mites and allergies.

#43 Manage clutter on your nightstand

It’s easy for your nightstand to become a dumping ground for everything. One of the best things you can do is to set up some sort of organization for your stuff. Having just a tray or two on your nightstand will help keep most of your nightstand clear of clutter.

Stairs

#44 Use a handheld or stick vacuum

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Stairs are a huge hassle to clean. It’s awkward to lug a bulky vacuum up and down the stairs, and it[s easy to tell yourself that you’ll get them the next time you vacuum. Consider getting a small handheld vacuum to easily run up and down the stairs, getting them clean in no time.

#45 Start vacuuming from the bottom

This is one of the exceptions to the rule of cleaning from top to bottom. Starting to vacuum from the bottom is great for two reasons. One is that it’s safer to always be looking where you’re headed. The second reason is that if your stairs are heavily trafficked and dirty, you won’t grind in any dirt if you’re going up clean stairs.

#46 Wipe down your banisters regularly

Put banisters on your schedule of things to touch up regularly. If you give them a regular wipe, you won’t be faced with a caked-on layer of dust when you get around to cleaning them.

Floor

#47 Maintain a shoe-free home if you can

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Shoes track in a lot of dirty and bacteria from outside. Having a no-shoes policy in your house is the best thing you can do to keep your floor clean, especially your carpet. And plus, you won’t have to pay for expensive carpet cleaning multiple times a year.

#48 Make your carpet last a lifetime with the right vacuum

Carpets are prone to getting dirty and beat up over time. In addition to keeping shoes out of your home, your vacuum can actually damage your carpet if it’s too rough on it. The spinning brush on your vacuum can prematurely fray and tear apart your carpet, especially if you have a carpet with very high pile. A vacuum with very strong suction but with no spinning brush is a great option for keep your carpet clean and like new.

#49 Pick things up as you go

Try to pick up anything on the floor that shouldn’t be there when you walk by. The quicker you get to it, the less it’ll bother you as you keep walking by it in the future.

#50 Get a self-wringing mop and Swiffer-style broom for hard floors

Make cleaning floors easier for yourself. For hard surfaces, get a Swiffer-style broom for light sweeping and a self-wringing mop for mopping the floor. A self-wringing mop gives you the best of both worlds when you need it: a soaking wet mot for fighting grime and a dry mop to wipe it all back up.

#51 Place rugs or floor mats to protect your floor

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Place rugs or floor mats where it’s appropriate to protect your hard floors. It’s usually going to be easier to just get the mats or rugs washed than it is to replace and repair any flooring.

#52 Use the right kind of vacuum for hard floors

Maintaining a clean home also includes just maintaining your home in general. Your floors can be easily damaged by vacuums with bristles that are too stiff. Choose vacuums with softer brushes when you’re using it on hard floors like hardwood or laminate. If you have tile floors, try to get a vacuum with a wet washing feature.

Closets

#53 Keep your closets organized

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Chances are that you have a closet that’s just become a haven for random stuff to collect. Some of the things in there might actually have a place better suited for them somewhere else in your house. Others might really have no other place to be, but they’re awkwardly hanging out on the floor of your closet. Go shop for some awesome storage systems that’ll make your closet really shine with utility.

#54 Regularly assess what’s in your closet

So do you have a closet that just accumulates random stuff? Old gift wrap, shoes, tools, or anything else you might not have touched in over a year? Take a hard look at what you have in your closet and decide if you really need it or not. You can just throw it away or donate it if someone else could use it..

Hallways

#55 Place rugs or mats in high traffic areas

This tip is especially applicable if you wear shoes in the house. Getting a cheap mat to protect heavily trafficked areas will protect your floors and keep your house in good shape.

#56 Wipe walls and baseboard with dryer sheets

A little known trick about dryer sheets is that they can actually help repel dust. By wiping your walls and baseboards with dryer sheets, they’ll stay cleaner for that much longer.

Entryway

#57 Use heavy duty mats to keep the dirt out

Source: http://www.allmats.com/

Even in a shoe-free home, you’re likely to be removing your shoes in the entryway. Get heavy duty mats that do a great job at keep the dirty at the entryway. If you live in a place with cold, snowy winters, look into getting boot trays to collect melted snow and ice.

#58 Have a place for your shoes

For households with many shoes or many people, having a shoe rack or any sort of organized spot for your shoes means that shoes won’t clutter the entrance. With enough shoes, you’re looking at dirty spreading further and further out.

#59 Install hooks for jackets and heavy outerwear

Assign a place for your jackets and any other outerwear. Hooks and racks protect your chairs and couches from becoming a target for your jackets.

#60 Have a place for your keys and coins

Having a place for your keys and coins not only helps you keep free of clutter, you’ll always know where you can find your keys if you leave them in the same place every time you come back into the house.

Backyard

#61 Close any patio umbrellas when you’re done

Forgetting to close your umbrellas can lead to several problems. More dirt and leaves will collect on an open umbrella. They’re more likely to be hit by bird poop, and they’re more prone to flying around in a bad storm.

#62 Store your cushions if you’re not using them

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Keeping the cushions to your outdoor furniture inside is the best thing you can do to keep them clean. Leaving them out all season, even if they’re under cover, makes them dusty in no time.

#63 Regularly sweep the ground around your furniture and planters

Tidying up your backyard from dead leaves and dirt instantly gives it a fresh feel. Leaves especially like to gather in corners and behind furniture. You might not even realize how clean your patio could look until you go out and give it a quick sweep.

Basement

#64 Organized and declutter

If your basement is already finished and you have some sort of living space in your basement, you can treat it like an extension of the rest of your house. But, if your basement is unfinished, you’re probably using it as a makeshift storage space. Like with the rest of your home, start by having a clear place for everything. If there’s something you’re very unlikely to use again, get rid of it.

#65 Start by getting your bare floor as clean as possible

It’s hard to want to be in your basement to do anything, cleaning included, if it’s really dirty. You have to just jump in and get it done with. Mop, scrub, and clean everything to make your basement feel like a part of your home and not just a musty dungeon for your unloved belongings.

#66 Ventilate often or dehumidify to combat mildew

Depending on your climate, your basement might get damp and mildewy. Ventilate your basement often to keep the mildew away. You might even consider getting a dehumidifier to run in your basement. If you have a persistent problem with musty smells, whip up a dilute bleach solution and scrub the surfaces to combat the fungus in your basement.

Cleaning Supplies

In order to keep your home clean, you need the right supplies. You’ll also find a lot of cleaning guides all over the internet about how you can make your own cleaning solutions. However, that takes more work and this guide is about making it easy for you to keep your home clean.

Equipment

Microfiber towels

Deserving a second mention, microfiber towels are a must-have for cleaning around the house. They’re absorbent, soft, won’t leave scratches, and also won’t leave lint all over your home. You often don’t need much more than some water and a microfiber towel to get some serious cleaning done.

Extendable duster

Source: https://www.bedbathandbeyond.com/

Get those hard to reach places with an extendable duster. These are great for things like ceiling fans and high shelves.

Brushes

At a minimum, you want a toilet brush and a general scrubbing brush with nylon bristles. You might also want a grout brush for your bathroom.

Gloves

Slipping on a pair of long rubber gloves makes you feel like you can handle anything, even the really grimy stuff. Make sure you invest in a good pair that won’t rip on you while you’re cleaning.

Scrubbing sponges

Scrubbing sponges tackle those things that need a little more power than just a microfiber cloth but not quite a full brush. They’re flexible and can be used to get tricky surfaces.

Lint Rollers

Lint rollers are not only useful for getting lint off your clothes, they’re a secret weapon against dust and hair on upholstery.

Vacuum

You need at least one vacuum in your home, but it might even be better to have two: one regular vacuum and one smaller, portable one. A lighter and more maneuverable vacuum makes it easy to handle small spills on the floor and get trick spots like stairs.

Broom and mop

It seems simple, but it these two items have to go on the list. It’s hard to get a lot of things done around the house without either of these. You can sweep up spills, your garage, or your patio without a broom. And without the mop, you’re resigned to scrubbing floors with towels by hand. Choose a self-wringing mop to make it easier on yourself.

Cleaners

Baking soda

Baking soda comes in handy in all sorts of applications. It makes a great homemade scrub for cleaning and has powerful deodorizing properties for getting smells out, too.

Bathroom cleaner

Having a good bathroom cleaner helps you get water stains and buildup on the walls of your shower or tub. Coupled with a good scrubbing from a brush, it takes little effort to keep your bathroom clean.

Oven cleaner

Whether or not your oven has a self-cleaning function, an oven cleaner will cut through all of the grease and burnt buildup on your oven walls.

Stainless steel cleaner

This only applies if you have stainless steel appliances. A good cleaner can also buff out rust spots from appliances and knives.

Glass cleaner

Where would we be without glass cleaner? Anything else seems to leave streaks no matter what you try. It’s worth spending the money on glass cleaner to get sparkling mirrors and glass doors or window.

1. Easy Trick for Removing Rust

If you have rusted knives, you might have tried washing them and scrubbing them with your usual sponge with very little effect. One of the easiest tricks out there is to use Bar Keepers Friend. It works magic on rusted metal in seconds and can be used for more than just knives. Any appliances or counters can be treated with it as well.

2. Clean Your Air Vent Slits

Have you ever tried just wiping a rag across your vents to clean them? You’ve probably also seen how you end up leaving massive amounts of dust in between the slits. Sometimes, it even feels like you just made it worse. If you take any thin blunt object like a knife and put a rag over it, you can get easily between each slit. Choose your favorite all-purpose cleaner, and you’re good to go!

3. Get Your Screen Clean with a Lint Roller

All of the dust and debris that you get on your screen door just seems to get stuck. Wiping it just moves it around. But luckily, using a lint roller is an easy way to finally get your screen closer to looking new.

4. Clean Bathroom Vents

Bathroom vents are another of those things that seem to collect dust and unexplainable grime. Your usual dusting or wiping doesn’t get it clean enough either. People often overlook that your bathroom vent doesn’t have to stay in place to get it clean. You’ll actually get much better results and a real clean if you take it off and give a vacuum and scrub.

5. Microfiber Sofa Technique

Microfiber sofas are one of those things that are sometimes hard to figure out how to clean. It’s nothing like wood or other hard surfaces, and it’s not like leather, which you can find a lot of advice for already. It’s almost like suede and the texture is funny, so it’s not clear if you can just wipe it with your typical cleaners. Head over to DIY Just Cuz to get the details on their 2-step alcohol and baby wipe process.

7. Easy No Scrub Trick for Stove Burners

If you’ve never used ammonia to clean, you need to try this immediately. All it takes is a splash of ammonia in a bag. Put your dirty stuff in and let it sit overnight. The fumes will make it so everything is wiped off easily the next day.

8. Renew Your Range Hood Filter

The grease that gets trapped in your hood filter is best cleaned out by--would you guess--a degreaser. Pick any water-based degreaser at your local auto parts store. Dip your filter in a degreaser filter to see the grease come right off.

9. Vinegar and Baking Soda on Window Tracks

VInegar and baking soda is a household staple for cleaning all around the house. The acidity of the vinegar and the alkalinity of the baking soda helps you get most of the toughest stains out. Use this combo to clean out your window tracks, too.

10. Get the Blinds on BOTH Sides

Check out this clever trick from One Crazy House to get your blinds cleaner than you’ve ever had them. It’s hard to apply pressure to clean blinds well on just one side, but with tongs, you’ll get each blind just as clean on both sides.

11. Whiten Your Pillows

This process is not a simple one, but if you don’t wash your pillow sheets often, you might be horrified to see what colors your pillow has underneath. WIth everyday household products like Borax, bleach, powdered laundry detergent, and dish detergent, you can get these pillows look like new.

13. Dryer Sheet Chrome Polishing

Who would’ve thought dryer sheets could be used for anything besides making your laundry come out softer and fresher? You can use them to polish the water spots away from your chrome faucets. Check out the source for even more things you can do with dryer sheets.

18. Dust Ceiling Fan Blades

One of the biggest problems about dusting your ceiling fan blades is that all of the dust ends up falling on whatever’s below it, often your bed. Use a pillowcase to not only dust the blades but catch the dust that comes falling off.

24. Simple Hair Brush Cleaning Trick

If you find yourself ever wondering if you should get a new brush because the brush you’ve had for years is looking dirty, consider cleaning it instead. It doesn’t take much more than dish soap or shampoo you already have laying around the house, and an old toothbrush or cleaning brush to give it a quick scrub.

25. Squeegee Fur Off Your Carpet

This trick is going to be a pet owner’s favorite. If you own a pet, you know fur likes get everywhere. It likes to stick to fabric, carpet, and upholstery. A squeegee will grab fur right off whatever it’s stuck to, leaving you with a clever way to gather any fur on the carpet.

26. Refinish Your Curling Iron

A quick word of warning first: try this trick on a tiny area of the metal near your handle before you commit to doing the whole iron. Rachel at Adventures of a DIY Mom has great success with using steel wool to refinish her iron, making it shiny and better at conducting heat to curl your hair.

27. Use Toothpaste to Refinish Your Sneakers

Toothpaste is great overall cleaning solution with very gentle abrasiveness to help get tougher grime off a lot of surfaces. Try it on your sneakers to refinish them. See Instructables for a detailed step-by-step guide.

29. Another Trick for Weird-Shaped Bottles

Start by pouring some raw rice into your bottle. Add a little bit of dish soap and water, and give it a good shake. The rice will act to scrub the sides of the bottle. You can also add a little bit of vinegar to help get hard water stains off, too.

30. No-Scrub Oven Clean with Ammonia

Ammonia makes its return for cleaning your oven this time. Put some ammonia in a bowl and let it sit overnight with your oven door closed. You should be able to wipe the oven down pretty effortlessly the next day.

32. Another Pet Hair Trick

Rubber gloves are another clever way to get pet hair off your furniture. A squeegee or carpet rake might not work so well on rounded chair cushions. Run your rubber-gloved hands to gather up the hair for easy removal.

34. Turn Your Old Cookie Sheets Like New

Even with just a few uses, cookie sheets can build up grease really quickly. If you’ve already given up on your cookie sheets, they’ve probably gotten worse and worse with each use. Use vinegar and hydrogen peroxide to get them looking like new again.

36. Refinish Wood Scratches

Domestic Bliss Squared has reported that a 1 to 3 vinegar to olive oil solution can help refinish old wood scratches. Check to see that this won’t damage the rest of your furniture before applying it everywhere.

38. Simple Grout Cleaning Recipe

39. Another Place to Use Lemons for Hard Water

Source: Broccoli Cupcake

Water stains on shower faucets are often extra stubborn. The regular use of any shower makes it one of the worst places for calcium buildup. A lemon slice applied directly across the faucets can wipe those deposits right off.

41. Try Lemon Juice to Clean Your Cutting Boards

Your cutting boards are one of those things you want to be careful about using harsh chemicals to clean, whether they’re wooden or just plastic. Try lemon juice for a natural way to attack any stains on your cutting board.

44. Tackle Stubborn Slow Cooker Stains

Just like with an oven, a little bit of ammonia overnight with lid can make it easy to wipe up any burnt buildup on the inside. If you need any more scrubbing, then a hydrogen peroxide and baking soda paste will do the trick.

50. Kool-Aid Toilet Scrub

The citric acid from Kool-Aid and the fun flavors it comes in makes it a silly but surprisingly effective way to scrub your toilet.

51. Scrub Awkward Containers Magnet Sponges

Here’s a clever trick for those awkward containers that you can’t get your hand inside of. Cut a sponge in half, put a magnet in each side, and use this invention to scrub the inner surfaces of the vessel. See the source for more details!

52. Sweep Up Big Liquid Spills

Big liquid spills are a nightmare kitchen situation, especially if you just spilled a huge amount of soup or sauce that you’ve been working on for hours. It takes way too much work to properly soap up all of the liquid. If you have a lot of flour on hand, however, the flour can absorb the liquid and make it easy for you to just sweep up the mess.

53. Ketchup and Salt Copper Polish

With equal parts salt and ketchup, you can polish your copper using a soft natural fiber cloth. This is a gentle way to polish your copper, so you’ll need a stronger treatment for anything that’s deeper into the copper.

55. Lemon Dish Rinse

Lemons make a regular appearance on this list, and it’s because the citric acid and fresh scent of lemons make it so appealing to use all around the house. Throw a lemon slice into your dishwasher to help prevent calcium deposits from forming on both your dishes and dishwasher.

58. Pick Up Broken Glass with Bread

Breaking glass always up being a huge hassle. You have to obsessively sweep and wipe up your entire floor just in case little pieces went flying further than you thought. And there’s always the possibility that you might cut yourself. Consider using bread to help pick up glass with less risk of cutting yourself.

60. Remove Jar Smells with Mustard

If you’re big on canning or making sauces, you might have jars that stink like something you made years ago. Fight those smells with something just as strong: mustard. A simple hot water and mustard mix will do the trick to make your jars like new.

61. Sugar Scrub (Not for your face!)

A sugar cube is a surprising way to clean your pots and pans with burnt food at the bottom. Steel scrubbers are often too rough while a normal kitchen scrub isn’t enough. Try scrubbing your pans with a sugar cube to get them clean without destroying your sponge.

62. Coffee Filter Screen Clean

If you have them laying around, coffee filters are a perfect way to clean your computer screen or TV. It’s soft, and the airy texture makes it great for picking up dust instead of just pushing it around your screen.

1. Easy Trick for Removing RustSource: Make Your Own ZoneIf... Read more →

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